Wednesday, November 16, 2005

 

Wednesday 16 Nov 05

3.30 Meeting with Saint Vincent de Paul
Last year Saint Vincent de Paul were 160 years old.
Their traditional role is in supporting families. They do this through taking their details which they pass on to volunteers who then 'conference' with the family throught vists and find out how they can be of help.This help may take the form of advice, material assistance (christmas hampers, direct payment...) or help with dealing with social services. SVP also run educational schemes(eg breakfast/ homework clubs) ans specialist visitations in hospitals, hospices and prisions.

In Limerick their educational support covers a preschools, traveller children fund, youth groups (boxing, reading, arts clubs), 2nd level (revision projects in examination years and grinds), bursaries for 3rd level and summer camps.
They give housing support through 24units for the elderly and a hostel for47 men fulltime which bed (own room) board and a care plan to help them move on. The also have a drop in centre searving soup, tea and coffee on a daily basis, and shower and laundry facilities . They aslo campaign for social justice.

To volunteer with SVP you just need to have some time available, know what you;d like to do or offer some expertise. Or you can use your own iniative to raise money for SVP with their support (contact them with an application form , 2 referees and a photo id).

The average volunteer with SVP is 57/58 with many volunteers in the 60's and also an active young membership.

www.ulsvp.ie (SVP group in University Limerick)
www.svpmw.ie


MAG Limerick
MAg Limerick was set up 7/8 years ago. It was actuallythe iniative of Mag Ireland who noticed that their were quite a few Mag members around the Limerick area so sent in the MAG cork group to help set up a Limerick Branch.Two of the main iniatives of MAg Limerick used to be the Toy run - where a cavalcade of bikers would bring presents to children in the local hospital at christmas accompanied by Santy in a side car and lobbying on issues related to motorcycle safety. The toy has since been passed over from MAG Limerick, they found the funraising to be a lot of work ( it took up six months of the year) but still happens through someone else. Some of the early campaingns were to the local council on issues just as potholes and hole covers (these are threcherous to bikers when wet or icy). Now a days is 90% with members wanteing to hang out and dicuss makes models etc.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

 

Tuesday 15 Nov 05




10.00 - 1.00 Women' s dog walking group.
Tea and scone in Avoca afterwards.

3.00 Southhill Domestic Abuse project
Confidential provides practical and emotional help and education plus training including support and information (one –to –one support, support groups) and practical help on housing /finance /and legal issues.
Wendy Goggin.
Women's Support Worker
Southhill Domestic Abuse Project
266 Avondale Court
O’Malley Park
Limerick

061 313025
scdp@eircom.net

8.00- 10.00 Aikido
Circle of Harmony Aikido
St. John’s National School
Garryowen
Limerick

http://coh.aikidoinireland.org

Training Schedule:
Tuesday 7.30 –10 pm
Thursday 7.30 –10 pm

Monday, November 14, 2005

 

Monday 14 Nov 05

10.00 Amnesty International -Limerick Branch
Local branchesof Amnesty campaign and funraise mainly on Irish and local issues. Some of the issues and events the Luimerick branch have supported and been involved in are National Human Rights Day, Voilence against women and mental health. Some of their campaigning efforts include lobbying local politicians and letter writing campaigns. One of the things that realy impressed me with this local approach was Amnestry manner of working with the network of organisation in the city. As John explained if Amnestry want to raise awarness of Volience against women they will seek the advice of orgainsations such as the South Hill Abouse project. To join Amnesty you can do so through the website, they will then send you out news of Amnestry groups and events in your area.

They meet every 2nd Monday of the month over Phenesys bar at 8pm.

7.00 - 10.00 University of Limerick Archery Club

archery@skynet.ie
http://www.skynet.ie/~archery

Olympic Style and Field Archery.
Monday 7.00 –10.00 pm UL Sports Hall
Wednesday 7.00 –10.00 pm UL Sports Hall

Saturday, November 12, 2005

 

Saturday 12 Nov 05

11.00 -1.30 Limerick Youth Theatre

Friday, November 11, 2005

 

Friday 11 Nov 05



5.30 - 7.00 St. Mary's Cathedral Choir

Dagdha Dance Company
When to Dagdha Mamuska night in their own venue ( a wonderful renovated church).
Mamuska " is a unique night of creativity designed to offer individuals the oportunity to experiment, the the presence of a live audience, with new and evolving artistc works. it aims to create an open space for all people to present or view artistic work in a friendly and favourable environment'.

A great night of dance, poetry, music and performance and wine.
www.dagdha.ie

Thursday, November 10, 2005

 

Wednesday 9 Nov 05


3.30 Met 2 ladies from the Limerick Art Society and their Chairperson at the pre -opening of their annual exhibition at LCGA.Had a glass of wine and some cheese and grapes on sticks while I chatted.

The society was set up in 1942 and their are currently 110 members. They organise one annual group show which is open to all members, all those who sumit are guarenteed to have at least one work exhibited (up to a total of three). Indeed this inclusivness is the ethos of the Society, all grades of those interested in the visual arts can join; from those who dont paint at all (for they are prdomently painters) for those who are regularly to be seen with brush in hand. Throughout the year they also organise demonstrations and talks and night of tutrials for members by professional artistsOne of the reasons for joining the ladies pointed out were that art is a solitary activity and in joing the group you get to speak to people with similar interests.

8.00 -10.00 Limerick Camera Club Mary I
The Limerick Camera club meets to give classes, lectures, run competitions, encourage beginners and discuss photography.

Tonights lecture was on digital photography by Eoin Stephenson from Ul. The talk mainly focused on photoshop, how to manipulate and correct images. Some of the infomation I knew before from pass classess and trying to figure stuff out on photoshop myself, but others i didnt. I think thats one of the tings with photshop its so vast you will only ever know so much, what you need to know, so dipping into someone elses hard one tricks is very valuable. Some of the things I learned are:

When sharpening an image (using unsharpen mask) so not as to degrade the image turn it to LAB mode, isolate B/W and sharpen.To make a coplor photo B/W boost the levels then turn to greyscale.The camera icon at the bottom of history takes a copy of a layer. There was also a very interesting discussion about ethics in digital photgraphy, with Eoin suggesting that digital phtography is the "truth you want to speak". Another nice quote from him is " Photographs are a language, they are elegant and they speak".

 

Tuesday 8 Nov 05



7.00 -9.30 Limerick School of Arms - Classical Fencing.

Upstairs from the School of Economics is Limerick School of Arms - 'the only dedicated fencing facility in Ireland and only the second dedicated classical fencing facility in Europe'.

The instructor who runs the school is Neville Gawley who became passionate about classical fencing while studing under a master in New York. One coming to Limerick Neville wanted to continue fencing and found to do so he would have to set up his own school. On the night I arrived 2 other fencers were practicing Yann (who is also and Archery instructor) and a lasy fencer.

Neville talked me though some of the history of classical fencing and showed me examples of various types of weapons; foil, epee, backsword, cudgelling, and La Canne Italiana (a type of fencing with a walking stick). And then the fencing! With my own practice foil in hand Neville went through the poses and moves - that may sond simple but it actually takes quiet a lot of concentration to get them right as the difference in getting it right or wrong can be down to a slight turn of a wrist. Neville is a great teacher thoguh - very patient and willing to go over moves gain and again until you understand and get it right. One of the most trilling parts of the evening was learning and performing the movements for 'on guard'. It really apealled to the romantic in me and also the kid who would be a mustakeer! Not only was the evening enjoyable but i think it was a pretty good workout too.

Lots of people I talked to after doing fencing have been ' wow I'd love to do that' ' I didnt know there was a fencing shool in Limerick". Its definenly one of the persuits that show you that you cant know everything going on in a city.

 

Monday 7 Nov 05

Phone call from Limerick Leader looking for more info on project and some photos.

Interview with Pippa focusing ondocumentation v's experience and ethetics.

 

Saturday 5 Nov 05

11-1.00 Limerick Youth Theatre
Today Moliere and The Restoration.

 

Friday 4 Nov 05

11.30-1 Scribblers
Discussed reading, what type of works we like, authors etc.
Joe gave me 2 copies of his book Shannon Die...Never the prequelto his recently published work Shannon to Subitus. One he as donated to the archive and the other is for me. I cant wait to read it.

5 -7.15 St. Mary's Cathedral Choir
One of the hymns practiced tonight was The Souls of the Righteous by Stanley Merchant, some of the lyrics are"The souls of the righteouss are in the hand of god and there shall no torment no torment touch them. In the sight of the un-wise they seem'd to die. But they are in peace, they are in peace, they are in peace." There was just something about it that was .. im not sure chilling maybe or haunting, like i couldnt wriggle free of the sadness of it. Many of the hymns are like that reverend and solmn with peaks of elation. They also practiced A song of the spirit of wisdom by Selby (a psalm) its my favouite so far - pecause of the words rather than the tune as psalms are quite regmented in sound."Maranatha" was a word in another hymn, beautiful sounding, I wonder what it means?

8.00 -10.00 The Thomond Archeology and Historical Society.
Mary I college. This was the most formal lecture of those I have attended, that may have had something to do with the room also - I was your typical stepped leacture hall rahter than the class romm setting. Because of this I just slipped in and seated myself. Despite that is was obvious tha its very much a group ; with people chatting and greeting eachother on entry. The age range was 30's to 80's and of the 36 attending tonight 12 we women and 24 men.The lecturer was Dr. Marion Dowd from UCC . Liam who I think may be the Society Chairman gave her and introduction.The talk was on the excavations on a partiular cave - Glencurran cave in the burren.

 

Thursday 3 Nov 05

Phonecall from St Marys Art Group.

Limerick Climbing and Crochet Club. 10pm Souths Pub.
I headed off with my instructions of where to find the club congregated in the bar but still felt slightly nearvous like i was heading off on a blind date with 20 people. I wasnt hard to spot them and they quickly gathered me into their fold proffering a pint and all.

The group was originally part of the Ul Climbing club but formed a break away group due to the constrains on a club within a college - no outings during exams or non term time etc.

About the name - well its actually more of a hiking club than climbing but some of the walks are steep or difficult (they range in difficuly so check before you decide to join one) the crochect bit came in as a tongue in cheek way to attract more lady members but its also a reference to a type of knot used in climbing.

There are plenty of ladies in the club now and a lot of members overall - some come regularly and some very infrequently. The reason they meet in a pub used to be to plan the next walk but now thats all done well in advance so now its more of a socail event and a way for new members to come along and find out about the club, ask questions and get to know some of the members. This I think is a great idea, there was another newbee their tonight who didnt know anyone in the club but was keen to join and I could see that the process really broke the ice and also allowed time to ask important questions about kit etc.

Kit is really important when in come to hiking, these guys are very keen of =n safetly and if your kit is not up to scratch you just arent going on a walk. Its fair both on the leaders who want to keep everyone in one piece, on you fellow walkers who want to enjoy their day out and on yourself - and jopur into a 5 hour walk you dont want to be suffering from blisters to you? let alone anthing more serious. So it can be an expensive hobby once youve gotten all the gear but one thing that really came throguh on speaking to people was that its a way of life and once you do get into it it can change the way you live or at least spend you weekends! It is easy to fall in love with the idea of tapsing up mountain the wind in your hair the fresh air in your lungs, getting out and experincing the country rahter than looking at it throught a window.




 

Wednesday 2 Nov 05

Phone call from Amnesty international Limerick branch.


Shanonside Astronomy Club. 8pm Mary Immaculate College.

I got talking to one of the founding members of the club as I waited outside of the meeting to start (there was a board meeting going on inside). He explained that the club strted in 1985 after a astronomy classes given by a Ul Lecturer - the attendees of which decided to set up the club after the classes ended. They currently have articles in the Limerick leader with are focused at everybody rather than just the astronmically learned.

The club aims to encompass all levels of learning and interest in astronomy and is very open to new members. Indeed they were very friendly and only to delighted to give me information about themselves, at the end of the class many members stared behind to give advice to one new member on their new telescope. Their was 22 members at this meeting, men and women from late teens to 80's with a leaning towards men in their 30-60's not that this seemed to matter it was all about the skies!

The night opened with a presentation on whats happening in the sky currently - what you can see and when. This was very accessable to the lay person. Many of the sights can actually be seen with the naked eye others require a telescope. Really madee me think about looking up more often. I have thought about this in relation to architecture in the city - the need to look up but hadnt really focused on looking beyond that. There is the obvoius 'it makes you feel very small' but more than that it makes you feel very ignorant (not the club!) to think we (your average pleb) doesnt take more interest in whats going on beyond our own little space.

Little titbits I picked up are:
If the sun sets to your right then you are facing south (I could never remember what why this is)
All stars rise and set like the sun does.

An intersting area touched on was astral photography - would love to know more about the methods of this but I wont be around on the lecture date, it i believe entails attaching an SLR camera to a telescope.

Tonights lecture was on Quasars. I was warned that this might be a more technically diffecult talk that theie usual it did get away from me at times but was interesting none the less. So lets see I hope I have this right..
The first quasar (named 3C48) was a compact radion source identified with a 'stellar object'. A quasar has more radio waves than a star. All galaxies are moving away from us, all space is expanding- like the rising of a cooking pudding. The wave length of a source of light is moving away - toward the red end of the spectrum).

Nothing can move faster than the speed of light, light always moves at the same speed, 3 billion meters per second.

Radio images show jets of material emerging from the centres of quasars at speeds close to light, probably the axis of rotation of the black whole.

Their are billions of quasars - they are all light years away.
The galaxies that are fading now dont have quzars at their centre.
Ok I could have that all wrong but thats what I picked up.

Reading that some of the members reccommended are "Universe" by Kaufman (a textbook), Nightsky magazine, Astronomy magazine (nice images) and Sky and Telescope).

 

Tuesday 1 Nov 05

Emails from Universtiy of Limerick Badminton Club, Motorcycle Action Group (MAG) Limerick and Limerick Camera Club

Filing system arrived.

 

Sat 29 Oct 05


11-1 Limerick Youth Theatre
Today Elizabeth and Jacobean theatre.

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